Box Score Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team didn't do themselves any favors Friday night.
The Cardinals could have all but clinched a spot in the Minneesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs with a win over Concordia Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.
Instead, the Cardinals found themselves hanging on for dear life, getting a goal by
Rachel Harrison (Racine, Wis.) with 13:17 left in the third period to salvage a 2-2 tie vs. the Cobbers.
A tie that did little for the Cardinals' playoff hopes.
The Cardinals entered the final two games of the regular season with a two-point lead over St. Benedict and Bethel for the fifth and final MIAC postseason berth. Thanks to Bethel's 5-1 win over St. Benedict on Friday, SMU — which moved to 6-8-3 (15 points) in the MIAC — is now one point in front of the Royals with one game left.
An SMU win or tie on Saturday, and the Cardinals are MIAC tournament-bound for the fifth straight season. A Cardinal loss in their rematch vs. Concordia, and they must hope St. Benedict beats Bethel — or the Cardinals will be left on the outside looking in when playoffs begin next Tuesday.
"It's pretty simple — if we take care of our business against Concordia, we're in (the playoffs)," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk. "We had an opportunity to make things easy on ourselves by winning (Friday) and we couldn't get the job done.
"Now it's one game, all or nothing."
SMU certainly had its share of chances to record conference win No. 7, outshooting the Cobbers 30-19 — including 16-2 in the second period.
Yet, when the horn sounded ending the second period, it was the Cobbers who were clinging to a 2-1 lead.
SMU's
Jenny Hocum (Rochester, Minn.) and Concordia's Lindsay Czarnecki traded first-period goals, and Paige Stone gave the Cobbers a 2-1 lead 46 seconds into the second period, as she beat SMU goalie
Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) with the first of their two second-period shots.
"We got a little taste of our own medicine," said Ryhorchuk, whose team got the equalizer at the 6:43 mark of the third period as Harrison's shot from the slot beat a screen Jenna Johnson. "We've had a number of games this season in which we've been outshot like that and we've come away with the wins. Tonight, Concordia didn't have a lot of chances, but they made the ones they did get count.
"It would have been nice to get the win, but I thought after the first period we really controlled the play and played pretty well," continued Ryhorchuk. "We weren't able to get the results we wanted (Friday), but hopefully we can bounce back and get the job done (Saturday)."
